The present invention is directed generally to a telescoping bed slat, and in particular, to a telescoping bed slat economical to manufacture, easy to assemble and readily adapted to beds of varying heights and widths.
Bed slats extend between the rails of wooden beds to support the box springs and mattress. Metal beds generally have rails with one or more hingeable slat sections extending perpendicularly from the rails which engage a mating slat sections to form a bed frame having two or more horizontal supports. The opposing slat sections typically include pins adapted to extend through apertures in the mating slat portion to secure the frame. Wooden beds, on the other hand, include wooden bed rails with cleats extending along the inside length of the rail. Bed slats rest upon the top surface of these cleats, and the box springs and mattress are placed thereon. Historically, wooden bed slats were precut to fit each bed. Throughout the years, beds of varying widths were standardized. Although the standard bed sizes are full, queen, king and California-king, certain of these beds falling within one category may require slats of different lengths.
The emphasis on manufacturing articles of higher quality and lower cost grew in parallel with the desire to provide a bed which is easy to assemble. Currently, many suppliers deliver and assemble the bed in the customer""s home, creating an even greater emphasis on the need for quick and easy assembly.
Bed manufacturers do not typically manufacture the slat assembly and must purchase these assemblies from other suppliers, such as B and H Panel Co., 230 West Academy Street, Asheboro, N.C. 27204. The manufacturers demand a high quality, low cost product which is easy for retailer""s delivery personnel to assemble. Various attempts at providing bed slats of varying lengths have failed because they were complex and expensive to manufacture.
These systems were difficult to assemble and required a number of tools for assembly. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,886,832, to Mitchell et al. discloses an adjustable bed slat having telescoping sections with respective pawl and ratchet means. The Mitchell et al. slat is expensive to manufacture because of the pawl and ratchet means and fails to provide any type of central support, let alone a versatile and economical vertical support operable on a multitude of bed heights.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,452,808 to Tucker, discloses a telescoping bed slat having two sections, each having an L-shaped bracket adapted to engage a bed rail cleat. The first section includes a threaded rod extending from a first bracket and the second section includes a tap cylinder extending from the other bracket. The Tucker system requires welding the brackets onto the respective sections, tapping a cylinder and providing a threaded rod, all of which boost the cost of manufacture out of the bounds of economic reality. Furthermore, there is no way to connect one or more vertical supports to the Tucker slat in an economically efficient manner.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,504,807 to Brotherton, Jr. et al. discloses a telescoping bed slat wherein the respective ends are attached to the bed rails, but do not rest on cleats on the rail. Brotherton, Jr. et al. teach attaching the ends of the slat to a mounting bracket on the bed rail using a pin or hook configuration. The telescoping sections are bolted together at the center of the slat, thus, requiring additional materials for manufacture and tools for assembly. Additionally, there is no way to provide one or more supports along the Brotherton, Jr. et al. slat.
Thus, there remains a need for an economical bed slat system which is easy to assemble and easily adapted to fit beds of varying widths and heights. There is a need for a bed slat adjustable to various widths having one or more adjustable supports to adjust the height desired bed height. There is a further need to provide uniform supports adapted to work with a telescoping slat requiring one, two or more supports. A need remains for a slat support system substantially reducing the number of tools required to assemble the slat and support system.
The invention fulfills these needs by providing a telescoping bed slat easily assembled for beds of various widths and heights. In particular, the invention includes a telescoping slat, one or more telescoping supports and securable mounts at terminal ends of the slat for anchoring the slat to respective bed rail cleats. Each slat includes two telescopically joined tubular sections. Preferably, the tubular sections are rectangular and include coinciding, longitudinally extending slots. The supports include a mounting head portion adapted to slideably engage the coinciding slots and extend downward from the slat toward a floor.
The supports may include two telescoping tubular sections. An upper section attaches to the mounting head portion which slideably engages and extends within the slat via the longitudinally extending slot. A lower section attaches to a threadably mounted fine adjustment that permits fine adjustments in the height of the support. In the preferred embodiment, the tubular sections of the support are rectangular and include a series of through-extending apertures adapted to receive a pin, bolt or dowel in order to set the desired height of the support.
The head portion of the support foot includes an upper portion which slides within the slat, a lower portion extending within the upper member of the support, and opposing sides having channels slideably engaging portions of the tubing members defining the slot in the slat. The mounting head portion is made of a molded styrene or other durable plastic, and the channels are adapted to slideably engage the slat at portions in which the telescoping sections overlap and portions in which they do not overlap. This flexibility allows one support configuration to work on beds requiring one or more supports at various positions along the length of the slat.
In the preferred embodiment, the ends of the slats include a molded styrene or other plastic insert mounted within, and at terminal ends of the slat. The inserts and terminal ends of the slat include apertures through which a pin or dowel is inserted to attach the respective terminal ends to a bed rail cleat. The cleat will generally include corresponding predrilled holes sized to receive the pin or dowel. During set-up of a bed using the telescoping slat, one simply mounts one or more supports to one of the telescoping members by sliding the mounting head portion within the tubular sections, followed by telescopically engaging the members to form a single slat of the desired width of the bed. Next, pins or dowels are inserted through the ends of the slats into the bed rail cleat, and the supports are slid to the desired position. The telescoping sections of the supports are used to roughly set the support height. The fine adjustment attached to the bottom section of the support is used to adjust the support to the exact desired height. The invention provides a bed slat system for beds of varying heights and widths which is easy to assemble and disassemble while minimizing manufacturing cost. The invention further eliminates the need for different mounting configurations for supports and the need for centrally clamping the bed slat, both of which minimize the amount of hardware and tools required to manufacture and assemble each slat.